Electronic pens can be used for generation of information that electronically represents handwritten entries on a product with a writing surface. It would be desirable to incorporate such electronic pens in an information management system such that the electronic information could be efficiently conveyed to different destination units for further processing.
In US 2003/0061188, US 2003/0046256 and US 2002/0091711, which are herewith incorporated by reference, the present Applicant has suggested such information management systems in which a position code is applied to each product to code a plurality of absolute positions thereon. By reading the position code, electronic pens are capable of electronically recording a sequence of positions that reflects the pen motion on the product.
The position code on each product is a subset of a much larger abstract position-coding pattern. Examples of such abstract patterns are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,570,104; 6,330,976 and 6,667,695, which are herewith incorporated by reference.
The abstract pattern is divided into subsets of given size, each such subset being associated in the system with a unique identifier. If each subset is intended for a respective physical page, it is denoted a pattern page and is represented by a unique page address. In such a case, each absolute position may be represented by a page address and a local position within the associated pattern page.
The electronic pens may have knowledge of the abstract position-coding pattern, via so-called templates that are pre-stored in the pen to define certain functional areas in the pattern, e.g. as described in Applicant's prior publication US 2003/0061188. The pen may process the recorded positions based on functions indicated by these templates and/or provide feedback to the pen user, e.g. by vibrating when recording a position in a certain functional area.
By designating different parts of the abstract pattern to different destination units, the electronic information can be automatically directed from the pen to the correct destination unit for processing. For example, the system may include an intermediary server which, upon receipt of one or more absolute positions from a pen, identifies an associated network address of the correct actor and directs the flow of data to this address.
Such a system is disclosed in Applicant's prior publication US 2003/0055865, in which an electronic pen in a first roundtrip establishes contact with a so-called paper lookup server (PLS) and inquires it for routing information based upon position data that the pen derived from a position-coded product. Then, upon receipt of the routing information from the PLS, the electronic pen in a second roundtrip establishes contact with an application server as indicated by the routing information. The application server then requests the relevant position data from the pen.
One disadvantage of the known system is that the products cannot be generated independently from other components of the information management system. For example, the pen must store a template for the product, the intermediary server must know where to direct the information recorded from a certain product, and the application server must know how to process this information.
Further, the known system requires the pen, the PLS and the respective application server, as well as the respective communication paths, to be accessible whenever data is to be transferred. A failure anywhere in the communication chain may potentially lead to data being lost, possibly without the user of the pen being properly notified thereof.